Korrasami - Portal Day
by MattHunX
Summary: A sequel to "15 Years Later". Their family outing and visit to Lin and the fair.


**Korrasami – Portal Day**

The sun was slowly rising to wake Republic City and the people. Its light found them through the windows of both high-rise apartments in the middle of the city and of family homes, in quiet neighborhoods. Raven locks were brushed aside by delicate fingers and a smile graced her face, before Asami even opened her eyes, having been awake for minutes, but only deciding on getting out of bed at the sound of a chorus of barks, coming from under their bedroom window. One was a squeal, another considerably deeper, but still definitely not animal and only the third was actually coming from one. She stood, moved to the open window and looked down to see her wife, their daughter and her wife's polarbear-dog, sitting in a row, all gazing up at her, their eyes gleaming from energy as they greeted her. They sounded off one after the other, going through the tones, as if it had been practiced and Asami clapped at the performance. It was relatively early in the morning, depending on who one would ask and yet, all of her girls were up and about. Korra was ready to get into her exercise routine, along with their daughter, who was eager to learn at least the forms of the martial arts that were particular to the four bending styles. Technically there were more, if one counted what could be achieved with spirits and Asami smiled as she remembered their speculation about the exact number of ways her wife could bend, while she watched them from their back porch. A topic that also came up, when their ever-curious daughter asked them if there were more than four kinds. They had to leave out half the things she and Korra jokingly counted as bending, including their orientation and the Avatar's other kind of flexibility. The former was not a sensitive subject, nor was it in anyway difficult for their daughter to understand. However, she was far too young to hear about the latter. Though for all she knew, their daughter already heard about it. The walls were not exactly sound proof, Asami reminded herself and glanced to the side at Naga, who gave her a confused and concerned whine at the brief worry that must have shown on her face, over the thought. Asami gave her a scratch behind the ear, with a reassuring smile and her eyes moved along the neighboring houses, as much as she could see of them from the thick rows of shrubbery and trees that complemented the fortified fences, running parallel to them, around the property. She could still see movement on both sides, through all the greenery and she had a clear view of the house on the opposite side on the street from them, where another one of their inconspicuous neighbors was tending to his garden. What the rest of their neighborhood did not know, was that all of the houses surrounding theirs were occupied by Future Industries security personnel and their families. In protecting the Avatar and her family, they had both one of the most important jobs and one of the easiest, as they could keep a constant vigil from the comfort of their own homes, under the guise of ordinary neighbors, who loved to spy on the celebrity couple, but who kept a distance from them. There had not been any incidents or a single alarm raised, since they moved in, apart from a few phone calls from Asami's workshop and their kitchen, whenever Korra tried to cook, notifying the fire department that the hazard was over. The official neighborhood watch made sure the rest of the people living in the quiet suburb were also safe and secure. It was not the case that crime was non-existent. The rates were merely lower the farther out people lived and the city saw the rise and fall of many syndicates and criminal upstarts, who only managed to attain short-lived fame, on the rare occasion they made the headlines. Their activities were only covered more extensively in the dedicated periodicals that budding detectives and policemen subscribed to or picked up from a news-stand. It was still mostly the same, as it has always been and they would hear all about it from the recently retired Chief, later.

"And...you smack 'em in the face!" Asami came out of her thoughts at the sound of Korra instructing their daughter how to fight, who mimicked her punching the air in front of herself. She and Asami both smiled, exchanging a look as she puffed her cheeks and feistily battered the invisible bad guys. She kept at it for several minutes, not entirely exhausting herself, but tiring some, nonetheless. Korra told her to go clean up and help her mother make breakfast and ruffled her sweaty curls. She began her exercise in earnest, using all the elements, moving the rocks that were left lying around and drawing water from the pond, momentarily disturbing the koi. Air was readily available and fire she could make, much to the further distress of the fish, but her days of catching them and frying them, on the spot, were over. Mostly. She only made a quick meal from them, whenever they were near the harbor, with no food stands nearby. She definitely would have gotten an earful from it from Tenzin and she did get a few scolding remarks from other airbenders they happened to run into, while quick-frying a bite. A lot of them have formed families on their own and spread all over the world, filling up all the air temples, including the rebuilt northern temple. The ranks of the White Lotus also grew, with the addition of airbenders to their organization and despite their presence and growing numbers, many non-benders still dedicated themselves to the way of life of air acolytes. As Korra seemingly danced around with strong currents of air whipping around her, she gazed up at the clear white puffs in the sky to see a passenger-plane emerge from one of them, as a different one disappeared into another cloud, moving away from the city, while a third and a forth were flying in. Planes became widespread, capable of transporting several dozen people and were affordable, though many companies, airlines and would-be passengers still preferred airships. Some were traditionalists, while others were afraid of the new, fast flying machines. She also saw an airship, approaching from the north-east, from Ba Sing Se and she guessed from its slower-than-usual speed, considering the faster speeds they were capable of, that it was carrying many new arrivals and the pilot was giving them some more time to admire the view, before they would anchor and be reeled in to land at the mountain airfield that was expanded into the Hiroshi Sato Airport. The airbase was located in a different part of the mountain range, farther out, but anyone with a good spyglass or binoculars could make out, at least, dots that were the latest prototypes of planes and hummingbird mechs in the middle of being tested. The latter had become an indispensable part of construction, especially in the case of high buildings and they even proved to be useful in rescue operations. The police force were also supplied with them and Lin Beifong announced with Asami Sato, the deployment of new hummingbird units, several years ago. They were agile enough to easily avoid most bending attacks, depending on the skills of the targets and were impervious to metal-bending, having been made of platinum. Their net-trap cannons and scaled-down EMP and shock-wave harpoons could quickly immobilize both men and machine. Despite their name, criminals learned to fear them.

"Mom! Breakfast is ready!" Korra came out of her musings, when she heard her daughter scream and looked to see her propping herself up on the wooden railing of their porch, dressed in a child-sized version of Asami's old mechanics uniform, with the top part wrapped around her waist, wearing a crimson, high-necked shirt and boots. Korra's body was moving unconsciously, for the past several minutes, going through the motions, as her mind drifted.

"I'll be in, in a second!" she yelled and went to shower. Asami heard clatter coming from behind the bathroom door and opened it to find two bottles of shampoo on the tiled floor and Korra holding two more in each hand, having caught them, before they fell to the ground. Asami smiled, immediately knowing Korra was using her airbending to dry herself faster, again and she took a ravenous glance at her wife's naked body that had only gotten even more refined over the years. She only knocked less than a quarter of the shelf off, as opposed to the tornado-like mess she left the first few times she did it, after they moved in.

"Excited for today, huh?" Asami teased her for the clumsiness.

"You bet!" Korra replied, not even bothering to wrap a towel around herself, after putting the bottles back.

"Auntie Lin won't see us coming!" Asami felt something latch onto her leg from the side and they jumped at the scream, as their daughter appeared. Her innocent eyes barely started to widen, when Asami covered them with her hand and Korra promptly grabbed a towel.

"You two aren't going to ambush her, like last time, right?" Asami asked with an uneasy smile.

"We didn't _ambush_ her!" Korra defended herself and their daughter. "I just kicked in her front door. She probably felt us coming, anyway." she added, folding her arms. "Always bare-feet these days, like Toph. Must be an old-earthbender-lady thing." Korra smiled at the thought of how much like her mother Lin turned out to be, in that way. She had not become any warmer and was still as strict and as abrasive as ever, but she definitely adored their daughter. Even if it had not been for her seismic sense, Lin would have still felt the rumbling from their daughter running on the wooden floor to pounce at her, after Korra made the way for her.

"We get her, this time!" Their daughter exclaimed.

"We'll see!" Asami said as she led her away to let Korra finish up. "She's definitely going to need another trip to her acupuncturist." she added. Lin paid regular visits to the man in Zaofu, who first helped her with the therapy and given her retirement, his client might just turn out to be even more of a handful than she usually was.

"But, she's retired. She doesn't have to work, anymore. Won't she be happy?" Her daughter asked and Asami shook her head as they went back to the kitchen, passing framed pictures and flowers in vases, in the hall.

"Heh. Not her." She answered with a slight laugh. "She barely got into the habit of taking days off, never mind a vacation. Actually, she...took her first official leave, after...your mom and I started our relationship." Asami told her.

"Because you and mommy were making trouble! And she was tired!" Her daughter giggled and skipped to her seat at the dining-table.

"Um...yes." Asami smiled. She was guilty as charged and so was Korra. Lin took some pleasure in telling their daughter all that she could hear about, at her age. Asami glanced at one of her daughter's pencil drawings stuck to a new refrigerator device, with a small magnet. It was them in their car, with a police officer handing them a bunch of tickets for multiple infractions. If they were not pulled over for speeding, then it was for something else and it also gave an opportunity for their daughter to learn certain rules, early on, of which she even reminded both of them, sometimes. Her drawings were already past the stick-figure stage, with basic shadowing and realistic body proportions. Another picture, above it, showed Korra, with her head hung in embarrassment and shame, next to the wreckage of a crashed hummingbird mech and the figure of Lin standing next to her with folded arms and a reddened face. Asami recalled how Korra wanted to try flying one, without assistance. To both of their amusement and surprise, Lin had not proven herself to be a particularly capable pilot, either, when she gave it a try, with nearly the same results, if it had not been for a pillar of flash-frozen water, drawn from the river by Korra, that caught the aircraft in the middle of its spiraling towards the ground. It had been an eventful year, so far, Asami thought to herself. And they were only halfway through it.

Korra strolled in, wearing dark-blue water-tribe pants, thin boots and a light-blue, sleeveless, high-necked shirt, reminiscent of her old outfit, the only addition being the wave patterns running around it and the symbol of Raava on her back, designed and drawn from memory, with Asami's help. The sight of her daughter and wife having similar eating habits and manners, never failed to amuse the latter, who quietly chewed and watched in delight how much they ate. Neither she nor her wife were princesses and they were not grooming one, either.

"Leave some room for sweets, you!" Korra told their daughter.

"I will!" she replied with the confidence that she could eat it all and continued, clearing the whole plate, before Korra did.

"Alright! Let's do those dishes!" Korra exclaimed, when they were finished and her daughter grinned as Korra used waterbending to suspend the kitchen-wear in blobs, above the sink, one by one and spun them around, cleaning them as if she was some automated dishwasher, on the concept of which many of the companies were actually working on. They were not expecting there to be much complaint and fear coming from luddites. Not at first, anyway. And Korra did break a few dishes, at first, before she got the pressure right. She was holding a dish in place, inside a sphere of swirling water and their daughter rolled her sleeves up to stick her hand in, with a sponge.

"I'll change into something different." Asami told them. By the time they finished the dishes and were ready to leave for their family outing, Asami was dressed in black jeans, long boots, and a bare-midriff jacket, with a crimson shirt under it and her hair put in a high-ponytail. She adjusted the handbag hung over her shoulder and rattled the car-keys in her hand. Korra and their daughter raced each other to the car. The latter could not vault over the door to get in the backseat and had to open the door, while Korra did what she could not yet do to land in the passenger seat.

"Hey! No fair!" Their daughter exclaimed and got in with a huff.

"When you're bigger, you can do the same." Korra assured her.

"Seatbelt!" Their daughter exclaimed as she strapped hers in and Korra followed suit, while Asami locked the door and walked around the car to the driver seat. Naga came treading up to the car, on Korra's side and stuck her head over the door.

"We'll be back in the afternoon. You hold down the fort and have fun with the kids! Okay, old girl?" Korra gave both of her ears a scratch, behind them. In the wild, the average life-span of a polarbear-dog was twenty years, but in captivity or domesticated, as Naga was, they could live twice as long. Still, in polarbear-dog years, she was getting old. Every time they left her with the house, they would leave her portions of meat and would ask their neighbors to watch her, who brought over their children to play with her, when she has not been already exhausted by their daughter. Asami rolled up to the automated gate and stopped outside, where a familiar woman was waiting, as she had phoned over, in advance.

"The kids can't wait! Have a nice day!" Their neighbor and employee said.

"That's the plan!" Their daughter replied with something Korra would have said. Asami thanked their neighbor and accelerated out of the driveway.

"You didn't signal the turn, mom!" she was reminded, when they were out on the street and Korra burst out laughing. Apparently, both of them repeated past mistakes, in their own excitement. Asami blinked a few times, slightly narrowing her eyes and Korra could tell an idea just came to her.

"Uh-oh! Someone's got an idea!" she prompted her.

"I...it's silly. I just thought about...scaled down cars for children. Not like the toys they have out there, but one they could fit in and drive, using their legs. They'd have a hole in the bottom and they'd walk with it. Or they could run on rechargeable batteries, just like the mobiles." Asami explained.

"Uh...but, they'd still be toys, right? Just bigger ones." Korra said.

"Well, yes. I wouldn't really want children driving around...and getting tickets." Asami added with a lop-sided smile.

"I wouldn't get tickets!" Their daughter folded her arms, confidently.

"Well, _I_ never thought I'd get any." Asami quietly commented and glanced at Korra with a knowing smile, who grinned at her and to herself, thinking of the time their traffic violations started to accumulate, in the form of stacks of tickets that were stuffed in the glove compartment and were eventually settled, whenever Lin reminded them of it, with the threat of having them spend the night at the precinct.

"How are you gonna fit an engine in 'em?" Korra queried.

"Well, we can't scale those down, yet. It'll have to be done with smaller batteries, I guess." Asami answered. "One charge could last their play-time. Just enough." she figured.

"We would have races in the neighborhood, in no time." Korra commented.

"And we would win 'em all!" came their daughter's reply, who raised two fists in the air.

"Your mom would totally tweak everything in the car, anyway." Korra said.

"Couldn't resist." Asami agreed "It would be a bit unfair for the other children, though." she added with a not too apologetic smile that was almost smug.

"It's not my fault if I have the best mechanic in the world." Their daughter shrugged with the same smile and folded arms.

"No chance of someone throwing a hogmonkey-wrench in there." Korra was also confident in their odds of winning and her wife's ability to make even a toy-car outperform all others.

"We have a few mechanics and engineers in the neighborhood. I know their records. They'd be good at sabotage." Asami had a prideful smile as she went through all the able and talented Future Industries employees, in her head, who were not part of their secret security and many of who were mothers, themselves. Korra suddenly started giggling to herself, getting a confused stare from her family. "What is it?" Asami was already smiling as she asked.

"I just remembered old Shiro Shinobi with his voice. Him being at a race. Heheh." Korra explained and they could hear his commentary in their minds. Aside from doing interviews and narrations for audio record versions of children's books, the iconic radio broadcaster and sports-commentator had stuck with his job until he lost his voice, a few years ago and retired from behind the microphone, but not from the public. As an avid probending fan, he was a consistent presence at tournaments and press meetings relating to it, where he was as much of a celebrity, if not a bigger one, than the players themselves.

"There's no serious match today. But, we can go see whatever team is practicing, later." Korra turned around to tell their daughter, who rapidly nodded, several times, with a wide smile.

"They'll be enough excitement around the arena. I'm sure they moved some of the fair there, as usual." Asami noted how the event planners positioned the stages, tents and stands in all the popular location across the city, so no matter where people lived, they could always find opportunities for fun and games close them. Public transportation was also the choice of many citizens, who wished to visit more than one spot. Even though Sato-mobiles were environment-friendly, congestions would quickly result from the many families, who would take to the streets on these occasions. They even added a few holidays, worldwide, to the calendar, giving people all across the chance to take a break from work and celebrate more often and have more time for recreation and relaxation. Some of the proposals for special days were rejected, like Callus Awareness Day, suggested early on by Varrick. Though, he felt somewhat vindicated, after Varricakes Wednesday unofficially became tradition in many households. He was awfully pleased that some have abandoned pancakes in favor of his brand of sweets.

"Happy Portal Day!" A family waved at them from the sidewalk and they returned it. The people were quick to vote the day the third spirit portal was created in as an official holiday. Every year, since, Korra and Asami went to the spirit wilds in the old downtown, which was turned into a protected park, as they planned the week they returned from their vacation in the spirit world. After they have adopted their daughter, she was also brought along those trips, where she would slowly understand the significance of the place, both for her two mothers and for the world. Trained guides took people on tours through the portal, where even those with low affinity for spirits or knowledge about their world could marvel at it. On their approach to the bridges, people from the hilly suburbs could see the spirit forest that sprang forth from the cataclysm, prompting the expansion of the city that now stretched behind the mountains and farther up the river delta. As it could be expected, there were not many cars on the roads, but some of the trolleys were already full of people, who were being carried across the districts and the sidewalks were slowly filling up with the hurried footsteps of families, whose youngest members were impossible to keep from running ahead to the nearest fairground. They did not even make it to the bridge and yet, even after all the years, for a brief moment they still felt like they were already in the middle of the old downtown. They recalled construction on the districts they were going through started on the day they left for their first diplomatic mission, on their way to the South Pole. Crossing the bridge, they also recalled, as they were on their way to Lin, how the latter kept refusing to move to a suite provided to her by the city and instead decided to live in an apartment, right across from the police headquarters, where she remained, an earth-bending throw away from her former workplace. Her sharp, pale-green eyes were watching the station for any comings and goings, swinging from one patrol car that rolled by to the next, scrutinizing the men and women, who knew she was looking and were all squirming under her hawk-like gaze. Standing in her wide window, arms folded, Lin was keeping her extreme boredom from taking over her, by spending most of her day at the precinct, ever so sensitively mentoring new and experienced officers alike, who quickly became acquainted with fear and discipline and what it was like to be soaking in sweat, when their shift barely began. As she glanced to the right, following a responding unit on its way out, her eyes narrowed, locking on an approaching car that she immediately recognized, even if it was a new model, one she had not seen. There was only one person and her family, who had access to the latest mobile that was barely off the assembly line and they were probably looking to pay their respects and see if she had went stir-crazy, yet. She took a step back from the window, out of view for anyone down on the street, waiting as she felt their car stop and sensed their feet on the pavement.

"Hold it right there, you two!" Korra and her daughter turned their surprised gaze up at Lin, who pulled on the ground below them and saw a pair of blue and a pair of olive eyes go wide as they were launched from the street, up and inside her apartment. She stepped to the side as the mother-daughter pair came flying in to land on her wooden floor, which she did consider tiling, at one point, as ceramics would have been more suitable for an earthbender with seismic sense and in case she had to, she could have used it as a weapon, but she was used to plain wood. Lin took half a step towards the window, slightly leaning out and looked down on the street to see Asami giving the protruding pillar of earth a slightly disapproving but unsurprised look, which she directed up at her.

"That's coming out of your pension!" Asami told her.

"Good luck! I'm not even getting anything, yet!" Lin grumbled, folding her arms, again, but she put them back down as she knew what was coming.

"They're still doing the paperwork?" Korra asked in surprise as her daughter sprinted at Lin, who rooted herself in place and the failed attempt at a tackle did not discourage the little girl, who was, now, trying to impede her ability to breathe properly and was partially succeeding.

"Uhgnh. Whaddoyou feed her?" Lin groaned and put her hand on her head to calm her.

"She can eat whatever I can, heh." Korra proudly said, with a slight laugh.

"You don't say." Lin was not surprised. "It's only been a few months. If you keep growing like this, I don't think my ribs will last another year." Lin ruffled the girl's head, with a slight smile, who was grinning under her curly locks. In her mid-sixties, as she was, Lin did not change much in her appearance, only her hair, which was slightly shorter and was completely white. She occasionally kept it in a short pony-tail, with which even her men failed to recognize her, at first glance.

"Getting a bit _brittle_ , Chief?" Korra teased.

"Oh, you'll see. Hmph. If you don't need two-hundred years for it." Lin told her, with a slight scoff, referring to Avatar Kiyoshi's impressive life-span.

"Woah, I hope not! I mean, it would be cool, but…I…" Korra looked at her daughter and Lin could tell she was thinking she would only want such a long life if her loved ones could be there with her, throughout it all. "I wouldn't really want that."

"I don't think we get much choice." Lin stated, matter-of-factly, but she was also the daughter of a woman, who seemed to defy whatever plans fate had in store for her. "Some people just live long. Avatar or not. Doesn't even matter what kind of life they have. Mom didn't have back-problems 'til she was in her eighties and she's still doing the same things; surfing through the mud for mushrooms all day." Lin quietly described Toph. "The big wheel of life could roll up to her cave and she'd throw a rock in its face." she added.

"Stubbornness runs in your family." Korra commented.

"Don't _I_ know it." Lin agreed.

"And it's only getting bigger." Korra smirked.

"Hmph. Never thought I'd have to deal with my niece's kids." Lin mused, thinking about Opal and the youngest additions to the Beifong clan, after the first two. "And that goof is too easy on them. He'd spoil them rotten if it wasn't for Opal." she referred to Bolin being an easy-going dad, for the four children, as expected and Opal being more careful, while still giving them enough freedom. Something both she and her mother agreed she should do, given her own childhood.

"She keeps them and Bolin all in line. And Su helps." Korra laughed to herself and the front door shook as Asami tried to let herself in. Lin twisted the doorknob, with her bending, to unlock it and moved to the window, once more and swung her arm to push the chunk of earth back in place, so it would not be in the way for anyone. Otherwise it might have remained like that, until the next day. For all they knew, it is how she left home.

"Surprised you would lock it." Asami stated.

"At least your wife, here, won't kick it in. Mako already walks around like he owns the place. Nearly shoved him through the wall once, after he just burst in." Lin commented.

"He still brings you reports?" Korra asked and none of them were even the least bit surprised that Lin was still practically running the police force, from retirement.

"Yeah. Every day." Lin replied.

"Can't really trust management to anyone else, huh?" Asami teased her for wanting to remain in control of things.

"They won't get rid of me that easily! And Mako can keep an eye on the rest of them for me." Lin explained.

"How's he taking to the new position?" Asami and Korra both wondered how Mako was adjusting to having been promoted to leading the detective division, as Chief Investigator. He steadily began climbing the ranks within the department, as crime and the investigation of it never ceased.

"Hah. He was scared out of his wits, at first." Lin had a small smile. As far as her evaluation of her subordinates went, Mako had always been an assertive person, but the change in position and the added authority always came with an adjustment period, with every step of the ladder.

"Has he been here, yet? Or did he take the day off?" Korra asked.

"Whaddayou think?" Lin's question was the answer.

"Heh. Guess not." Korra smiled, folding her arms.

"He really took up your work ethic." Asami commented.

"Workaholic!" Their daughter yelled and Lin's brows jumped as she glanced down at her.

"Wonder we she learned _that_ word." Lin said, sarcastically, looking at her two mothers, who were practicing an innocent face as they exchanged looks. "He's working on a case in the New Dragon Flats." Lin explained and looked down at their daughter with a playful smile that was still rare from her. " _Non-benders_ are causing more trouble than benders, these days." she said, looking pointedly at her and raised a challenging brow to see how she reacts and was not surprised when the girl got on her toes, raising both fists, like a boxer ready for a fight.

" _I'll_ give 'em trouble!" she exclaimed.

"And me, too. Probably. Or the department, anyway." Lin had to keep reminding herself she was no longer the Chief of Police. "You're gonna be a handful, like your moms." she told her.

"Mhm!" came the enthusiastic nod from the little girl, who was ready to live up to expectations.

"You're saying non-bender crime is outta control?" Korra suddenly had a serious tone.

"I wouldn't say it's out of control. They're just looking to get a leg up on benders. Even muscle in on some of their business. Huh. At least, it gives my men…uh, um…the police a chance to arrest members from more than one gang, on a single bust and get some answers from them." Lin explained.

"I bet interrogating them doesn't go very fast, without you to scare them." Korra teased Lin.

"Tch. Sometimes even I wasn't enough." Lin huffed. "They're getting braver. Luckily, they're still stupid. Most of them, anyway. Some need a different approach."

"Go bad-cop!" Their daughter said and Korra snorted a laugh.

"Doesn't always work, kiddo. Sometimes you need put on a show. As much as you might not like it. Or be very good at acting." Lin sighed to herself.

"Oh. Try and get their cooperation with misinformation, huh." Asami guessed. "Make them think their life is in danger from their boss or other criminals. Tell them that events have already been set in motion that would be even worse for them than prison and the police are the only thing standing between them."

"Exactly." Lin muttered. Not surprised by Asami's cunning and fully convinced she would be capable of such manipulation if there was ever a need for it. "Of course, you'd still have to sell it. If they don't believe your act and call your bluff, you can blew a case." Lin explained, looking at their daughter's curious face, who just learned something new and important. Getting rough with people was not always the best way. "And if that doesn't help, you can still go bad-cop." Lin added and Asami sighed, putting a hand to her temple as their daughter perked up with a grin.

"Or you can find new ways to coerce them." Asami suggested.

"Right. New ways. That reminds me…when I was still there, some of the non-benders we've busted had a few of those fancy shock-handcannons of yours. Don't think there are a lot of them left on the streets, but enough for a nasty surprise for the units out there." Lin told Asami, who did not look too surprised that an invention designed for use by the police had gotten into the hands of the very people it was meant to help bring down.

"Yes. They briefed me on the incident, weeks ago. The group responsible threw almost everything they had on our transport. They risked getting a lot of their members captured, just to get a few prototypes." Asami explained how a shipment of the new equipment to the headquarters was ambushed and the effort the criminals put into the attack to acquire the hand-cannons that were based off of the shock-gloves, with the ability to fire blunt darts, charged with electricity, to shock a target from a distance. The police were meant to test them and managed to retrieve only some of them.

"Prototypes I don't wanna see used by criminals. Not against the department or anyone. They're still dangerous." Lin said.

"They sound pretty desperate to me. Maybe they'll use them to fight each other." Korra commented.

"Yeah? And what happens when they start taking over? One gang having all of the others under their thumb isn't exactly better. They'd be more organized and that is something we don't need." Lin explained.

"Oh. Well, when you put it that way." Korra saw her point.

"The case Mako's working on isn't related, is it?" Asami wondered, with some worry, though they all knew none of their worries were really warranted, as Mako was more than capable of handling himself.

"No. Doesn't mean he won't run into some thugs who have those things." Lin pointed out.

"He'll set their butts on fire!" The sentence could have come from Korra, as one would imagine. However, it came from their daughter, instead.

"Likely." Lin agreed with a small smile, after the brief surprise.

"I'll help!" Their daughter was amping herself.

"Oh, ho! They'd better wear kneepads!" Lin teased her and got a small glare and puffed cheeks in return. "You're gonna have to grow a bit, before you can set any butts on fire. Or just kick them." Lin added, after remembering she was not a bender. "You're taking her to any classes, yet?" she asked her mothers. Asami, in particular, since she used to take lessons from a young age.

"No. Or at least not yet. We haven't really talked about it." Asami answered and glanced at Korra as it occurred to both of them that they had not given it any thought, aside from the playful tips Korra gave their daughter during exercises.

"Well, I know you feel bad about it, because of your dad…" Lin started to say to Asami. "But, I think she oughta learn blocking." Lin was made aware of how apprehensive Asami was about learning chi-blocking, all those years ago, only because she did not want to associate herself with it, after their fight against Amon and his followers. Asami silently nodded in agreement with Lin and Korra gave her a supportive smile. Their daughter turned back and forth between them with a confused pout.

"I can block." She raised her hands defensively.

"Not _that_ kind of blocking, pip-squeak. The kind that lets you go toe-to-toe with benders. You hit 'em in a few spots and make them unable to bend for a while and you mop the floor with them before they could use their bending again." Lin explained to her, without going into details she herself could not really be bothered with learning.

"Or she can just use your old gloves." Korra turned to Asami.

"Uh-uh. They're vintage." Asami waved a finger, smiling. Her company made improvements to what they now called the old shock-gloves. The more recent versions were more durable, more efficient and even slimmer. "We can make a small pair." Asami added, beaming at her daughter.

"Or just a regular one and she'll grow into 'em. Wouldn't wanna hear any reports of a pint-sized lightning-bolt zapping people around town." Lin had her hands own her hips as she slightly leaned down for a quick stare-down with the aforementioned tiny force of nature.

"She wouldn't abuse them. Much." Asami added and sniggered, along with Korra, while sharing a glance.

"Riiight. She'd be at the market, _haggling_ for cookies with them." Lin made quotation marks.

"Pff. Running a candy extortion racket." Korra guffafed.

"I'm...sure she'd drive a fair bargain." Asami did not even exclude the possibility of their daughter shaking down merchants for sweets, however friendlily she might go about it.

"Yeah. A whole bag for free, if she could." Lin told the girl. Occasionally she would see the family and how much they bought at a particular market she frequented that was not even the closest one to her apartment, but one that was not packed with the tourists, who came to visit the portal and its park, which almost spread throughout the whole island. It was as if the park bearing Korra's name and the spirit wilds spawned by the portal's creation reached towards each other. In the case of the spirit forest, it did have a mind of its own, whereas Avatar Korra Park was expanded through construction to join the two and create the giant island park. For those coming from other parts of the world, the city hall and the police headquarters being located on and within that island park was a strange concept. Though neither their architects, nor the founders of the city could have foreseen the dramatic changes that took place, with which the people made due. It was probably fortunate that not all of the changes happened at once. The citizens had time to embrace and adjust to the spirits and their habitats that appeared throughout the downtown area. After that, the portal's appearance, with the subsequent growth of new flora and fauna, helped the land recover from the devastation.

"Well, someone promised her extra, for today." Asami looked at Korra, who shrugged.

"You're going to the arena, again?" Lin assumed.

"Figured we'd hit _three_ birds." Korra answered. "Fair, sweets and some bending action." she listed on her fingers and looked at their daughter's gleeful expression.

"Any plans?" Asami asked Lin.

"The usual. I'll just wait for a few old colleagues to come knocking." And by that Lin meant being dragged away on an outing to some locale she only ever visited on such occasions.

"Well, have you made your usual appointment?" Asami asked.

"In Zaofu? Sure. Su fit me in. You two thinking of coming with? Bet the little tyke would have her mouth open the entire time there." Lin looked at the girl, whose eyes flashed at the idea of seeing the famous home of the Metal Clan.

"We've only been there once, when she was still a toddler. Su will eat her up!" Korra grinned, looking at Asami and the decision to go was already made. "And we missed Opal's baby-bump, this time." Korra added, remembering one particular reunion in Zaofu, where Opal and Bolin showed up with the former nearly seven months into her first pregnancy and the latter tripping over himself to do absolutely everything in her stead, even lifting a teacup, so she would not exert herself.

"The babies will be there. Su's an even busier grandmother, now." Asami commented, with a smile. On one visit, they recalled never having seen Suyin as exhausted as she had been after playing with her first two grandchildren.

"So, when are you going?" Korra asked Lin.

"Next week. I'm taking a plane, this time. Had enough of being in the air for weeks." Lin said, sounding much like her mother used to, in her youth, when she had no ground under her feet on their travels. Airplanes more than halved the travel-time everyone was used to with airships. At first, people mostly got agitated during landings, as airships touched down smoother and slower than the planes. A single airstrip was built in the mountains, near Zaofu and a serpentine road snaked down to the gates of the domeless city, with cable-carts moving above, to and from the strip, to facilitate the moving of both visitors and cargo, as the city became more open to and involved with the rest of the world. During the first few trades and expansion, Korra and Suyin could not help think there was truth in Kuvira's words, regarding the clan's and the city's former isolation from the world and their refusal to share their technological advances. The ex-dictator served her sentence. Though, naturally there were those in whose eyes her punishment was not enough, despite her genuine regret, remorse and desire to repent. Regaining the clan's trust was something she felt was futile, however. Those once close to her found it more difficult than others to forgive her, especially Suyin, who remained bitter and unforgiving towards her. Something which Kuvira expected and accepted. Their differences initially stemmed from the way Suyin used to view Zaofu and its place in the world and that had changed. However, what Kuvira put her family through was something that could not be reconciled. The former captain of its guard left the city and the family she betrayed to find a place for herself in the world and no one, not even Baatar, knew where her solitary life had taken her. He hoped to rebuild their relationship, even through bars, but Kuvira convinced herself she was undeserving of both forgiveness and affection. Zaofu continued to be a pillar of innovation, growing in population and in size, beyond the boundaries of its metallic flowerbeds. The platforms on which its original districts stood became, not the physical manifestations of different social strata, as one would assume, thinking of Ba Sing Se, but the houses of its different art and technological centers, elevated to represent what made their society thrive.

"You can cancel your flight, if you booked it already. You're coming with us." Asami was not even offering, but telling her and Lin did not refuse. For one, it was more bearable to have someone familiar on board a flight and she knew Asami's personal plane was faster than any other, making for an even shorter trip.

"Fine." Lin folded her arms and shook. She looked down at how thrilled it made the girl, who had latched onto her legs, again.

"Give Aunt Lin another one, for goodbye, sweetie. Then, we'll be on our way to the arena." Asami told their daughter, who obeyed and squeezed. Lin hugged her back.

"Alright, you! Don't go starting too much trouble. You hear?" Lin told her and got a mischievous smile, in return, which made Lin sigh, with a small smile of her own.

"See you at the airport! Pack lightly." Asami told Lin, jokingly referring to how she barely had any possessions she would bring with her, apart from necessities, like spare clothes.

"Right. See you!" Lin said, without raising her voice, bidding them farewell, in her own way and watched from the window as they got into their car. She returned the wave their daughter was giving her from the backseat and waited until they safely disappeared from her view, making the turn towards the arena, when they reached the bay area.

As expected the streets were full of revelers, many of them tourists and pilgrims, parading at every step, while they worked their way from one attraction to the next. The mass of people grew thicker the closer they got to the arena and Asami parked their car at a spot close to the water. An act that always brought up memories of herself and Korra, both before and after their marriage, of the countless number of times they sat in her car, during the day, at sunset or just after, listening to the waves, while they ate or cuddled. They looked across the gleaming waters of the bay to Air Temple Island, where another generation of airbenders were practicing, both on the ground and in the air, along with a horde flying bison, large and small. The pair could hear, in their heads, the voice of Master Milo, who was probably putting many of them through training. Seeing a pack of lemurs in pursuit of a couple of them confirmed he was indeed, instructing them.

"He's not holding back on them." Asami smiled at sight.

"Bet Tenzin's just waiting for him to call 'em off." Korra commented.

"He probably still fears for his beard." Asami said with a light laugh as they recalled an incident, where Tenzin must have had a few crumbs of sweets left in his beard and the lemurs immediately sniffed it out, which resulted in his carefully kept goatee getting mangled.

"Can we have a lemur?" Their daughter asked, listening to their reminiscing. She was too young to remember it.

"Um…sure. But, it would eat all the sweets before you could have any." Asami told her, not in an attempt to talk her out of the idea of getting a pet, but simply stating what it would entail. Pun intended.

"Aww. Nu-uh." Their daughter promptly changed her mind, even though they would have gotten one for her, regardless. Any interest in them getting a flying pet was further diminished as they witnessed seagulls being fended off, after trying to snatch food right out of people's hands.

With the inevitable and predicted increase in tourism, the pro-bending arena had become an even more popular venue and it was also a boon to all the surrounding venues and businesses nearby. They made their way towards it, watching as their daughter zigzagged in front of them, between the stand, looking at everything and talking to every vendor. The only people whose eyes were not glued to them were locals, who got used to their presence, over the years. Everyone else was rooted in place and only a few had the courage to walk up to them to ask for a picture. Stacks of bottles tumbled down, rings coiled around poles, hammers slammed on pedestals to launch a pointer up a gauge and small muscles were shown off to cheering parents. Time flew by as their daughter, too, went through every game, completing every challenge, before noon. The family went back to their car and drove across town, towards the ever-busy Central City Station, to have lunch at a familiar restaurant, where the catering manager, who they knew since her waitress years, always had a table ready for them. The newest staff members were not as familiar with the family, only their status and the quiet banter of the patrons only momentarily stopped as the family walked by, being led to their table, where a waitress got their order.

"Are…we sure?" she asked, looking at Korra and Asami, after their daughter had ordered a plate of crab puffs that seemed like it was too large a portion for her.

"Yep." Korra nodded with a wide smile, assuring her of their daughter's appetite.

"Alright. Then, it's noodle soup. Crab puffs and a chocolate cake. And the name we should put on it is…" the waitress paused to hear it from the voracious little girl.

"Yasuko!" The girl beamed.

"Yasuko, it is, then. Pretty name." she told her as she wrote it down.

"Thank you!" Their daughter smiled back.

It was here Korra first mentioned naming a daughter and they decided to name her in honor of Asami's mother, but also to keep the naming simple. They could have included all the names of every influential women in their lives, but Senna Katara Pema Toph Lin Suyin Yasuko would have been too much, even though some like Bumi, Bolin and Varrick were, unsurprisingly, in full favor of it.

"Hey!" Came a familiar voice and a suited, blonde, pony-tailed woman walked by their table, escorting a small group of equally well-dressed people. The pair greeted her and so did their daughter. "Love the hair!" she said to Korra and gave an unabashed wink. She became a friend of the family and was also married or as her more posh and old-fashioned clients still preferred to call it, in a domestic relationship with another woman.

Candles were lit and the lights were dimmed around them and the pair reached for each other's hand, at the same time and they laced their fingers, gazing into each other's eyes, with more than just the flame from the candle shining in them. A pair of small hands reached for theirs and they both took one each and looked at their daughter with pride and joy. She blinked, in confusion, at the flame of the candle that slowly grew higher and more intense, melting the wax some, and Asami glanced at Korra, who looked away innocently. They shared a light laugh, taking a moment to note how perfect it all was. There was no need for a musician to be performing or for a record to be playing, this time, either. The rhythm of each other's and their daughter's hearth was all they needed to hear.

 **THE END**


End file.
